Friday Filler – When Dam Envy Turns to Grinding…

So…I checked my “Righteousness” rating, and I was down a couple of stars, which seems about right for me. If you are living too righteous a life, you are likely not living ENOUGH life, and are too self-righteous to know it!

I know why I’m not righteous. It has to do with actually enjoying a “tag war” with a couple of my favorite neighbors. We love tagging one another, as it is a little more personal than just dropping by for a handshake. And, as I have written about before, one of those neighbors is someone with whom I don’t really have any other relationship, except the graffiti…for years, and years, and years.

Tjbmurph and I have been neighbors almost as long as I have been blogging. She has been a tagger that makes me smile with her persistence, since 2013. It’s nuts when you think about it…but, we LOVE tagging! As soon as a major update is over, I can be assured that she will tag me almost the instant she is able. I laugh every time...and tag her back.

But, the real issue of the day, is her unknowing coercion to turn me into a “grinder” again. I am not a grinder. Much.

But, a bit of “neighbor envy” has made me so once again.

I am not a true “farmer,” in that I only KEM farm when the mood strikes me. I don’t house farm…and up until recently, I really didn’t bother to keep all of my Springfieldeans (ians??) earning and churning. That all changed when I was tagging TJ’s town…and saw the damn dam!

It is beautiful. And, coming from a state that has a TON of hyrdo-electric dams, I simply had to have it. In fact, we are so blessed with cheap/safe hyrdo-electric power that Woody Guthrie even wrote a song about it.

Green Douglas firs where the waters cut through
Down her wild mountains and canyons she flew
Canadian Northwest to the oceans so blue
Roll on Columbia, roll on

Other great rivers add power to you
Yakima, Snake, and the Klickitat, too
Sandy Willamette and Hood River too
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

Tom Jefferson’s vision would not let him rest
An empire he saw in the Pacific Northwest
Sent Lewis and Clark and they did the rest
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

It’s there on your banks that we fought many a fight
Sheridan’s boys in the blockhouse that night
They saw us in death but never in flight
So roll on Columbia, roll on

At Bonneville now there are ships in the locks
The waters have risen and cleared all the rocks
Shiploads of plenty will steam past the docks
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

And on up the river is Grand Coulee Dam
The mightiest thing ever built by a man
To run the great factories and water the land
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

These mighty men labored by day and by night
Matching their strength ‘gainst the river’s wild flight
Through rapids and falls, they won the hard fight
So roll on, Columbia, roll on

It really is a great song, commissioned by the Bonneville Power Administration for $266.66 a month in the early 1940s. Guthrie produced 26 songs in 30 days. That’s a whopping $8.88 per song. Shesh…talk about a bargain!

I love the lyric, “Your power is turning our darkness to dawn
So roll on, Columbia, roll on.” Classic… we could use some dawn right now.

Anyway… I had to have the damn dam! So…now…I am grinding my Springfieldians (eans?) to reach the needed $20 Million in game cash, so Cecil T. can bring it to my town! Can’t wait.

And THAT is where I will end my grinding for Cecil. I don’t care for the rest of the offerings…but, the damn dam? Gotta have it!

It turns darkness to dawn.

Do you have a dam? Do you tag? Are you righeous? Tell us…because we LOVE to know what you think! (that was my attempt at being righteous…did you see through it?)

72 responses to “Friday Filler – When Dam Envy Turns to Grinding…”

Thanks to Bob’s last-minute tip about buying and selling the convention center, I made enough cash in the final day or two of the event to buy Cecil’s dam and Krusty’s oil rig and still increased my cash reserves by $55 million. Thanks, Bob!!!